Samsung TL34HD digital camera

If you often find your friends drifting away, birds flying away, or the sun dipping below the horizon

before you can press the shutter button

Where

adjust settings

accordingly, the Samsung TL34HD ($300 as of 3/16/09) could be a good

point-and-shoot camera

option for you. The TL34HD eliminates much of the menu navigation required by other feature-rich digital cameras.

The TL34HD's 3-inch touchscreen makes the camera easy to use, and icons that line the screen give an instant view of all your settings. Tap each icon with your finger to reveal a menu of alternatives. If you can't remember what each icon means, hold your finger on it for a moment to see a written description.

The screen itself is a beauty too. Although 230,000 pixel screens are now common on digital cameras, the TL34HD ups the ante with a beautiful 460,000 pixel LCD screen. It renders images crisply. , provides plenty of contrast in bright light and gives a sophisticated look to UI icons, text and animations. The camera has only a few physical buttons - power, shutter, zoom control, menu and playback - as well as a mode selector.

While the touchscreen is a major draw, the TL34HD doesn't skimp on photographic features either. , and the camera's optical stabilization reduces the effects of shaky hands. Automatic face detection sets focus and

optimizes exposure for portraits

, and additional smile and blink modes delay the shutter until your subjects look their best.

The simple manual mode is a bit limited, but it's nice to have: You can adjust the exposure time, and you have the choice between

two aperture settings

at every zoom level. The TL34HD's built-in flash pops out from the top of the camera, giving it extra distance from the lens and reducing the risk of red-eye in your portraits. If you still catch the dreaded red-eye, the camera's automatic red-eye removal feature also works well.

I took the camera to the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco to put it through its paces. For most shots, the camera worked with no noticeable shutter lag. however, I was seeing 'capture' and 'processing' messages on screen for difficult low light and macro shots of small plants and animals, so in such cases the times of shooting could suffer. I loved the ability to touch the screen to select the focus point, but my experiences with manual mode often led me to adjust the

depth of field

too narrow. Luckily the high resolution screen made it easy to zoom in on the image and spot my mistakes.

In my hands-on, informal testing, photos looked crisp with accurate color. photos to the point that you will notice.

The camera scored well across the PC World Test Center's more formal jury evaluations. It scored particularly high marks for its low levels of distortion, indicating a good match between optics and resolution. sensor. On the other hand, it performed poorly in our battery tests, requiring its lithium-ion cell to be recharged on average after only 195 shots - well below the number of over 400 shots per charge that we have seen from many other points. -and-tires.

The camera's 14.7-megapixel resolution might seem overkill, but if you're starting to use the HDTV in your living room for more than just watching TV, it might make sense. for editing, cropped shots and large prints, the 10-megapixel widescreen mode captures images perfectly suited to an HDTV.

If you don't have an SD card slot on your TV, Samsung's optional docking station may appeal to you, despite its $70 price tag. It comes with a small remote (recent Samsung HDTV remotes also operate dock) to browse your images, set up slideshows, and watch videos directly from the camera. The dock also charges the battery, and the included HDMI cable in the dock lets you get a superior connection. The TL34HD captures 720p video at up to 30 frames per second, which is sufficient for most home movies. Unfortunately, automatic face detection is not an option when capturing video.

The Samsung TL34HD has a sturdy metal body that comes in your choice of black, silver and black, or eye-catching silver and red. Touchscreen controls make it a good choice for anyone who wants to quickly adapt to every shot. It's also a good addition to your HDTV if you choose to shell out upwards of $70 for the docking station.

This story, “Samsung TL34HD Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera” was originally posted by

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